Investment and Portfolio Management BAF106

BOND VALUATION
Investment and Portfolio Management BAF106
Market Interest Rate Analysis
In the bond market investment decisions are made more on the bonds yield
than its price basis.

There are three widely used measures of the yield:

Current Yield

Yield-to-Maturity

Yield- to- Call
Investment and Portfolio Management BAF106
Market Interest Rate Analysis
Current yield (CY) is the simples measure of bonds return and has a imitated
application because it measures only the interest return of the bond.

The interpretation of this measure to investor: current yield indicates the
amount of current income a bond provides relative to its market price


CY = Annual interest of the bond/market price of the bond
Investment and Portfolio Management BAF106
Market Interest Rate Analysis
Yield- to- Maturity (YTM) is the most important and widely used measure of the
bonds returns and key measure in bond valuation process. YTM is the
fully compounded rate of return earned by an investor in bond over the
life of the security, including interest income and price appreciation.

YTM is also known as the promisedyield-to- maturity. Yield-to- maturity
can be calculated as an internal rate of return of the bond or the
discount rate, which equalizes present value of the future cash flows of
the bond to its current market price (value).


Investment and Portfolio Management BAF106
BOND IMMUNIZATION


Two types of strategies investing in bonds:

1. Passive management strategies

2. Active management strategies
Investment and Portfolio Management BAF106
BOND IMMUNIZATION
Passive bond management strategies are based on the proposition that bond
prices are determined rationally, leaving risk as the portfolio variable to
control .



The main features of the passive management strategies:

They are the expression of the little volatile in the investors forecasts
regarding interest rate and/ or bond price;

Have a lower expected return and risk than do active strategies;

The small transaction costs.

Investment and Portfolio Management BAF106
BOND IMMUNIZATION
Active bond management strategies are based on the assumption that the
bonds market is not efficient and, hence, the excess returns can be
achieved by forecasting future interest rates and identifying over
valuated bonds and under valuated bonds.

The main classes of active bond management strategies are:

The active reaction to the forecasted changes of interest rate

Bonds swaps;

Immunization
Investment and Portfolio Management BAF106
BOND IMMUNIZATION
The essentiality of the active reaction to the anticipated changes of interest
rate strategy
if the investor anticipates the decreasing in interest rates, he / she is
attempting to prolong the maturity of the bond portfolio or duration,
because long-term bonds prices influenced by decrease in interest
rates will increase more than short-term bonds prices;

if the increase in Interest rates is anticipated, investor attempts to shorten the
maturity of the bond portfolio or duration, by including more bonds with the
shorter maturity of the portfolio
Investment and Portfolio Management BAF106
BOND IMMUNIZATION
The essentiality of bond swaps strategies is the replacement of the bond
which is in the portfolio by the other bond which was not in the portfolio
for the meantime. The aim of such replacement - to increase the return
on the bond portfolio based on the assumptions about the tendencies of
changes in interest rates. There are various types of swaps, but all are
designed to improve the investors portfolio position.

The bond swaps can be:

1. Substitution swap;

2. Interest rate anticipation swap;

3. Swaps when various bond market segments are used
Investment and Portfolio Management BAF106
BOND IMMUNIZATION
The essentiality of substitution swap: one bond in the portfolio is replaced by the
other bond which fully suits the changing bond by coupon rate, term to
maturity, credit rating, but suggests the higher return for the investor. The
risk of substitution swap can be determined by the incorrect rating of the
bonds and the exchange of the unequal bonds causing the loss of the
investor
Interest rate anticipation swap is based on one of the key features of the bond
the inverse relationship between the market price and the interest rate (this
means that when the interest rates are growing, the bonds prices are
decreasing and vice versa. The investor using this strategy bases on his
steady belief about the anticipated changes of interest rates and attempts
to change frequently the structure of his/ her bond portfolio seeking to
receive the abnormal return from the changes in bonds prices. This type of
swaps is very risky because of the inexact and unsubstantiated forecasts
about the changes in the interest rates
Swaps when various bond market segments are used are based on the
assessment of differences of yield for the bonds in the segregated bond
market segments.
Investment and Portfolio Management BAF106
BOND IMMUNIZATION
The immunization is the strategy of immunizing (protecting) a bond portfolio
against interest rate risk (i.e., changes in the general level of interest
rates).

Applying this strategy the investor attempts to keep the same duration of his
portfolio.


Duration is the present value weighted average of the number of years over which
investors receive cash flow from the bond. It measures the economic life or
the effective maturity of a bond (or bond portfolio) rather than simply its
time to maturity
Investment and Portfolio Management BAF106
Investment in Bond Summary
The main advantages of bonds to the investor: they are good source of current
income; investment to bonds is relatively safe from large losses; in case of
default bondholders receive their payments before shareholders can be
compensated. A major disadvantage of bonds is that potential profit from
investment in bonds is limited.

Currently in the financial markets there are a lot of various types of bonds and
investor must understand their differences and features before deciding
what bonds would be suitable for his/ her investment portfolio. Bonds can
be classified by such features as form of payment, coupon payment,
collateral, type of circulation, recall possibility, issuers

Investment in bonds decision making process:
(1) selection of bonds type according to the investors goals (expected
income and risk);
(2) bond analysis (quantitative and qualitative);
(3) bond valuation;
(4) Investment decision making
Investment and Portfolio Management BAF106
Investment in Bond Summary
Quantitative analysis of bonds is based on the financial ratios which allow
assessing the financial situation, debt capacity and credibility of the
company issuer of the bonds. Since the bonds are debt instruments and
the investor in bonds really becomes the creditor the most important during
analysis is the assessment of the credibility of the firm issuer of the
bonds. The most important financial ratios for the bond analysis are: Debt /
Equity ratio; Debt / Cash flow ratio; Debt coverage ratio; Cash flow /
Debt service ratio.

Quantitative analysis of bonds is based on the qualitative indicators which
measure the factors influencing the credibility of the company and most of
which are subjective in their nature and valuation, are not quantifiable. The
main groups of qualitative indicators/ dimensions are: economic
fundamentals (the current economic climate overall economic and
industry-wide factors); market position (market dominance and overall firm
size: the larger firm the stronger is its credit rating); management
capability (quality of the firms management team); bond market factors
(term of maturity, financial sector, bond quality, supply and demand for
credit); bond ratings (relationship between bond yields and bond quality).
Investment and Portfolio Management BAF106
Investment in Bond Summary
The role of the bond ratings as the integrated indicator for the investor is
important in the evaluation of yield and prices for the bonds. The bond
rating and the yield of the bond are inversely related: the higher the rating,
the lower the yield of the bond

Macroeconomic factors, changes of which have an influence to the interest
rates (increase or decrease), are: level of investment; savings level;
export/ import; government spending; taxes

The active reaction to the anticipated changes of interest rate is based on the
investors decision making in his/ her portfolio as reaction to the anticipated
changes in interest rates
Investment and Portfolio Management BAF106
Investment in Bond Summary
In the bond market investment decisions are made more on the bonds
yield than its price basis.

There are three widely used measures of the yield:

Current Yield indicates the amount of current income a bond provides
relative to its market price.

Yield- to- Maturity is the fully compounded rate of return earned by an
investor in bond over the life of the security, including interest
income and price appreciation.

Yield- to- Maturity is the most important and widely used measure of the
bonds returns and key measure in bond valuation process. Yield-
to-Call measures the yield on the bond if the issue remains
outstanding not to maturity, but rather until its specified call date
Investment and Portfolio Management BAF106
Investment in Bond Summary
Two types of strategies investing in bonds:
(1) Passive bond management strategies are based on the proposition
that bond prices are determined rationally, leaving risk as the portfolio
variable to control.

(2) Active bond management strategies are based on the assumption that
the bonds market is not efficient and, hence, the excess returns can be
achieved by forecasting future interest rates and identifying over valuate
bonds and under valuated bonds

The passive bond management strategies include two broad classes of
strategies:
(1) Buy and hold is strategy for any investor interested in non active investing
and trading in the market. An important part of this strategy is to choose and
to buy the most promising bonds that meet the investors requirements.

(2) Using Indexing strategy the investor forms such a bond portfolio which is
identical to the well diversified bond market index
Investment and Portfolio Management BAF106
Investment in Bond Summary
The essentiality of bond swaps strategies is the replacement of the bond which
is in the portfolio by the other bond which was not in the portfolio for the
meantime. The aim of such replacement - based on the assumptions about
the tendencies of changes in interest rates to increase the return on the
bond portfolio. The bond swaps can be: Substitution swaps; Interest rate
anticipation swap; Swaps when various bond market segments are used

The immunization is the strategy of immunizing (protecting) a bond portfolio
against interest rate risk (i.e., changes in the general level of interest
rates). Applying this strategy the investor attempts to keep the same
duration of his/her portfolio